Thriller Night Talk

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor- Koneko, Proofreader-Ghostie

The black shadow sensed a softening in the tone of Wei Fuyuan’s words. It tentatively raised its upper body slightly and repeated its previous gesture, stretching out its hand forward, towards the other party.

Wei Fuyuan glared at the figure fiercely, and immediately, the black shadow cowered, obediently retracting its hand in a timid and tame way, as if it was actually a domesticated cat.

Wei Fuyuan frowned deeply at what was happening in front of him, as his mind involuntarily recalled the classic reversal that commonly took place in many horror and ghost movies.

For example, the female lead would converse with the evil ghost, giving it honest and useful advice about how to change its lives for the better. The evil ghost would then disappear with a smile on its face. When the woman thought she was finally safe, she would suddenly be thrown off a balcony, or attacked violently by the evil ghost, resulting in her unfortunate death.

Another example, was when the male lead proceeds to strike the final killing blow on the monster, leaving it in its death throes– the male lead would become more concerned about his lover’s safety and doesn’t prioritise his attention on making sure the monster was indeed dead. As the couple sigh a breath of relief and check each other for any injuries, the monster would miraculously get a second wind and manage to obtain the achievement of striking two birds with one stone, killing them both in one strike.

These all too familiar plotlines could be summed up in just one sentence– your enemy will take advantage of your carelessness, and will kill you.

The more Wei Fuyuan thought about the situation, the more he felt his heart tremble.

Thinking about the moon being dark and the wind being high, moreover being so far into the deep mountain forest, as well as being in unfamiliar territory, and being alone with the other party full of black, thick Yin Qi…

——How overconfident was he to think that the shadow seeming weak meant that it’d be easy to deal with!?

Wei Fuyuan kept this thought in his mind, as he looked at the shadow intently with a sharp stare.

The shadow continued to shiver at the fixated glare, but still stretched out its hand in a stubborn manner.

Wei Fuyuan: “……”

This reaction made it seem like the shadow wasn’t just pretending to be weak in order to provide an unexpected burst of strength and overpower him later.

Wei Fuyuan gritted his teeth, and tentatively extended his hand back.

The black shadow immediately jolted and shrunk itself inwards, as if startled and scared.

Wei Fuyuan was stunned and reflexively looked down at his own hand. He saw a layer of golden light overflowing from his palm, then suddenly understood the reaction.

He gritted his teeth, withdrew the power of merit and virtue, and then spread his palm once again.

The figure of the shadow was obviously stunned, but it too, slowly, stretched out its hand.

Wei Fuyuan fixedly watched the mass of black air approach his palm, and nervously swallowed his saliva, feeling like he was filming the “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.

Finally, the black shadow’s “hand” fell on his palm.

Wei Fuyuan’s body swayed from side to side and he became a little disorientated all of a sudden. Almost immediately, many broken and messy images that did not belong to him, appeared inside his mind.

——This is empathy!

——It’s sharing its memories with me!

By the time these thoughts dawned on him, Wei Fuyuan had already seen the past history of the shadow in front of him…

—————————-

August 8, Sunday, 12:05 am.

Bei Quan, Qingzhu, and A’Liu got into the car with the two officers and headed straight for the state highway, which was in the south of the county.

“Our men have already gone ahead of us.”

Relying on the dead of night, there weren’t many cars on the road. The police officer in charge of driving, kicked the accelerator, and drove on the highway with a high-speed momentum, “They should be able to make it in time to capture the suspect before he escapes.”

“No, you should not act so rashly!”

Qingzhu interrupted him immediately. ｂ𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎ｌ.ｎｅｔ

“The opponent is not easy, I’m afraid your people will suffer!? After arriving at the scene, you just need to surround the house and not let anyone escape. Don’t go inside!”

The police officer in the passenger seat turned to face the two companions who were sitting in the back, and hesitated, “But ……”

Qingzhu didn’t say anything, and ordered

“Listen to me, don’t take risks!”

This person from the “Special Seven Field Service” was tall and powerful, with a strong body and a beard. Physically, he had the temperament of an old gangster, but he surprisingly spoke in a kind manner.

Once Qingzhu’s tone became severe, the aura of his whole body suddenly changed– it became fully opened, which was particularly oppressive. When this happened, it professed an indescribable, persuasive power.

The two officers were intimidated by his aura and could not speak for a short time, which created a sense of uneasiness and awkwardness inside the car. After approximately thirty seconds, the police officer in the passenger seat sighed softly, “I see.”

He took out his cell phone and called some of his colleagues.

“I’ll have them stand guard outside.”

This time, the task force was very efficient and soon found the identity of the suspect who killed Wang Baotai, through the clues provided by Bei Quan, Qingzhu, and A’Liu.

They started from two prospectives: how the suspect obtained Wang Baotai’s date of birth and why the murderer could buy a long-distance bus ticket directly behind Wang Baotai. The ticket clerk of the county’s long-distance bus company was quickly apprehended.

This ticket clerk, He Qiang, was local from the area…

He performed well at school, and was admitted to a junior college in the neighboring city to study finance and accounting. Last year, he graduated from college and returned back to his hometown. From word of mouth and good contacts within the family, he became an employee at the long-distance bus company in the county, becoming a ticket clerk.

Of course, He Qiang was not the murderer.

He was only a young man, being twenty-three years old this year. He had brown skin and was a strong individual, with a simple and honest face. His age and appearance were completely incompatible with the middle-aged man in black that was from the surveillance camera.

However, He Qiang was able to secretly collect basic information from all ticket buyers in the company, including, of course, Wang Baotai, who had taken the long-distance bus back and forth many times due to his family being in the local area.

“We had the bus company pull up He Qiang’s previous operation records and determined that he had repeatedly retrieved information on ticket purchasers born on those dates by searching with a specific year, month and day.”

The officer driving the car said.

“That’s how Wang Baotai was screened by him.”

Bei Quan, Qingzhu, and A’Liu all understood.

After screening out people with birthdays on these rare Yin specifics, the killer was able to greatly narrow down the scope and obtain the information of these people to determine whether their birth time met his requirements.

The seat which the culprit had acquired by imitating someone else’s data, was also arranged by He Qiang to be located behind Wang Baotai.

The police officer in the passenger seat added.

“So, we judge that He Qiang is likely to be the murderer’s accomplice.”

Qingzhu hummed and nodded as he listened, before asking in a deep voice, “So, where is this He Qiang now?”

The three people in the back seat thought they would hear a reply like, “We’ve got him under control”, but to their surprise, the officer simply stated,

“He Qiang has disappeared.”

Qingzhu immediately frowned.

“What’s going on?!”

The officer sighed and spoke with resignation.

“The bus company said that He Qiang sent a message in the company group Wechat about half a month ago, saying that he wanted to resign and simply didn’t come back to work the next day.”

He paused.

“Our people just went to the rental house where he lived.? Not many items were left in the house, and there were no signs of anyone still residing there. They asked his neighbors, who said that they hadn’t seen him for many days now.”

Speaking of which, the police officer’s tone became more serious as he continued,

“Moreover, his ID, bus card, payment apps and bank card show no usage over these last two weeks…”

Qingzhu knew what he wanted to express.

“So, you guys speculate that this He Qiang, is likely to have met an untimely end, just like Wang Baotai?”

The two officers in front of him nodded their heads together.

“Heh.”

Qingzhu smiled coldly.

“The murderer is indeed ruthless enough to kill people again and again…”

The police officer driving the car said again.

“Although He Qiang is probably dead, we can already be sure that the murderer must have had contact, so we investigated He Qiang’s dating situation.”

The police officer said, as he quickly glanced at the three people reflected on the rearview mirror.

“And, you also told us the model and color of the car the killer drove, as well as the place where the licence plate came from ……”

The young police officer was keen on the origin of the three “superior people” behind him, and how they knew that the murderer was driving a white Mazda that belonged to a neighboring city in the province, but, out of professional ethics, he suppressed his curiosity and bit his tongue.

“We retrieved the surveillance near He Qiang’s rental house and residence, found the same white Mazda, and located the real owner– and suspect– by the licence plate number!”

Bei Quan nodded, thinking that these officers were indeed quite efficient.

The real name of the owner of the white Mazda was Zhu Hongtao, the name was pronounced “Hong Hong”. Although sounding rather feminine, it was a rather uncommon name and its symbolism was very sophisticated.

Zhu Hongtao was 44 years old this year. His family was from a long lineage of famous scholars.

The ancestor of the Zhu family was “well-educated and industrious”, they had high prestige, and their greatest achievement was becoming a second rank high official.

Unfortunately, the times have changed, first the family experienced many years of chaos of war, and then “The Cultural Revolution” happened.The ancestral home has since become a local cultural relic, was converted into a museum, and the clan also scattered elsewhere.

Zhu Hongtao was a direct descendant of the Zhu family who stayed in the local area, but looking at his life history, nothing really special stood out.

He was very good at studying ever since he was a young child. Because he was so talented, he entered into a prestigious school, and studied all the way until he finished his doctorate. After graduation, he returned to his hometown and devoted himself to studying local folk customs. He made a living by writing and compiling books and periodicals related to these ideals. He remained unmarried, and lived alone in a small villa in the countryside, leading a simple life.

If the layers of evidence had not directly pointed out that Zhu Hongtao was the man in black with a broad brim hat photographed on the long-distance bus, no one would have thought that a simple folklore scholar who lived in the countryside was also hiding a secret identity of being a cruel murderer who even skined his victim.

“Zhu Hongtao and He Qiang have a distant relationship in a roundabout way, which can be regarded as… Um, being He Qiang’s cousin.”

The officer in the passenger seat pulled out a copy of Zhu Hongtao’s real ID card from the folder and let the three people in the back seat pass it around to see for themselves.

Compared with the ID he used previously, this photo was more like the man in black photographed by the surveillance camera.

“He Qiang’s colleague also said he had seen this man. He said that he saw He Qiang get into Zhu Hongtao’s car one day after work.”

He paused and added.

“Also, we found a large amount of cash in the rented house of He Qiang, close to 300,000 yuan. We suspect that this money is from the bribe that he received from Zhu Hongtao.”

“Understood.”

Qingzhu finished looking at the photos and passed the copy to Bei Quan next to him while saying,

“So, this guy named Zhu Hongtao bribed He Qiang and asked him to retrieve the required information about the targets from the car company’s database for himself, right?”

Bei Quan looked down at Zhu Hongtao’s photograph, and many ideas and guesses flashed through his mind.

“Qingzhu, Miss A’Liu.”

He called the names of the two people beside him in a low voice.

“How do you think, this Zhu Hongtao, can understand ‘those’ things?”

Bei Quan deliberately added an accent on the word “those”.